About me

I decided to write this short story, to give you an idea about who I am.

I always thought it was not of reason to leave personal information on the Internet, as well as any traces that could help someone figure out who I am. It is a network full of bad people (tm), so we should be careful with what we do, what we write, and where we write it.

For many years I've had an obscure Internet presence. As I expected, nothing bad happened to me. But then... what could have happened? If someone found my real name, would that be a big deal? If someone saw my picture, would that make a difference? There are hundreds of people who see me in the street on a daily basis; there are people with whom I interact on the phone, at the market, in public transport - does that make a problem?

I changed my views regarding this policy. I became someone who respects those who sign their work with their real names, instead of hiding behind avatars, nicknames, proxy-servers, and so on. Isn't it cool when you can be yourself?

Another incentive - knowing that others can 'see' them, one thinks twice before writing something on a public board, because they care more about their image (hence they have something to lose if they misbehave). It is really simple - would you enter a store and start shouting at people, calling everyone an asshole? I guess not... then why would you do that on the Internet? Right... because nobody can kick your ass for that.

Most people hide their identities because they are afraid to be criticized... We have to face it, if you can't deal with being criticized on some forum, then how the heck are you going to handle real world (tm) situations - debates at work, projects at school, meeting people in offices?

We should not be afraid to reveal who we are, otherwise we are nobody.

My name is Alex Railean, and I am %now-$var% years old ($var = the title of a book by George Orwell). I live in Chisinau, which is the capital city of Moldova.

I have a well-developed sense of humour (which is most often set to "not aloud" mode). My jokes can be very cruel sometimes, so it is better if I leave them to myself, and only let the neutral ones out. This means that only a small deal of them make it to the surface, yet many people think I'm one of the funniest persons they've ever met

I tend to be a lazy fellow, so I try to do things just once, but do them well. For example, I won't have to update my age on this page next year ;-)

I have a technology-oriented mind, I like to think in charts, mathematical functions, numbers, logical expressions, programming languages, variables and universal constants. If you hear someone say "while tee less than maxint, delta plus plus" outside the context of computers, it could be me.

I am pretty bad at mathematics

My tech-friends and colleagues think I am a humanitarian

My humanitarian friends think I am a cold and rational techie

I enjoy watching movies and discussing them with my friends. I am especially a fan of movies with non-linear chronology, where the events are not shown in their normal order (ex: Memento, Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, The Jacket, etc)

I play music in my head all the time. Most of the times I can't stop it

I think the world can be a better place and I always try to make decisions that are better for humanity

Sometimes I write poems

I like to express myself in riddles

I like making photographs, although I am not particularily good at it (at least not yet)

I speak Russian, Romanian and English (I think that knowing Russian has a huge impact on one's sense of humour), I also know the basics of French and German

Computers - that's what I study, that's what my job is about, they're the instrument I use in most of my activities... need I write more?

The colour of my eyes never changes

If you ask me to write this list again, I am sure that v2.0 will be different from this one... because there is so much more to say? because I don't like doing the same thing twice?

There you go, now you can use this information against me :-)

Purpose of this site

Keep in touch with my friends. If I write a story here, there is no need to repeat myself in emails over and over (look up "keystroke conservation principle");

Friends can keep in touch with each other, using this web-site as an intermediate link;

Collisions between social groups. The site is a way to "unite" individuals who would never interact with each other in real life. Not all my friends are compatible with each other, and sometimes it is interesting to see how different people react to a story;

Knowledge should be free. Perhaps many ideas are raw, perhaps some are not properly expressed in text, or maybe they have flaws; but still, they can be reviewed and used by other people, therefore the sum of global knowledge is increasing;

Letters to the future. The site is a repository of thoughts, which I can use later to see how I changed with time, and how certain events influenced me. I think there can be no self-improvement if there is no way to look at "where I've been";

Harvest statistics for my studies. Sometimes I'm researching various problems, or testing various hypotheses - and the site is an efficient way to collect data to support and extend such projects;

Meeting new people. From time to time I get comments from unknown people, and that's how new social connections are established. Isn't that great?

I guess there are other reasons too, for example "find my one and only". Does that work online? I don't know :-)

Contact
I love reading emails, as well as responding to them, so feel free to write - gr8dude at BLUEgmx dot net (remove the colour to obtain the actual address);

You can also leave a comment here, but then it will be a public message.

Nice blog!!….Though, I’m quite surprised you are writing in English( pleasently suprised I must say; I’m from Herts, England). Why is that? Have you been living in an English speaking country?Anyway, how did you get speaking English so well?
Bye!Till next time
Andy

Hi Andy, thanks for the feedback, I am glad you find the site interesting.

I have never visited an English speaking country, so I guess that means that my English is my sister’s fault :-) (she was my first teacher) I also had great teachers in school; then there are friends, computers, networks, movies, books and music – these had a significant impact as well.

The site has many stories in Romanian, and some of them are in Russian; but you’re correct – English dominates. It is understood by many, therefore the stories have a greater number of potential readers.

They’re not deleted; they have to be reuploaded (recently I migrated to a different server and some things got lost. The mess is still not cleaned up). They will be reuploaded before the end of this century.

Ah, da, “Meeting new people. From time to time I get comments from unknown people, and that’s how new social connections are established. Isn’t that great?” EXACTLY, special thanks to http://accidentalbaby.wordpress.com/ ! ;)

It might actually sound crazy, but I have realized today that there are people way more twisted than I am :) in a very good sense of it, obviously…
Promise to check out the rest of the blog as soon as I’ll have some time :)
I’ll be anxiously waiting for the links you promised, that really got my attention :) thanks in advance
I guess lucky me for running into you like that.

Vlada, you know what they say - what doesn’t kill you makes you “twisteder” :-)

Mitzura, I’m glad to know that honesty is still a valued feature these days. No, I am not a teacher of English but I do teach in English (stuff about software, computers, networks and security). I’m going to publish a video of one of my lectures in the near future - I think you’ll like it (it is not about technology, it is about learning in general).

Greetings and salutations from an old friend. Some things never change, some things do… but the world continues spinning and whirling and while much water may pass under a bridge… when two friends are reunited on that bridge it is a merry (and oft times bitter sweet) thing.

No rush on the email. I certainly know how busy life can get. My life is a whirlwind too when all I want is peace and quiet and good tilled earth but, alas, I get little of that. It is a marvel, with all of our modern conveniences, computers, cars, cell phones… that we have less and less time to get things done (and yet more ways TO get them done). To get the computer to do your work for you, you must program it. Then they come out with a new programming language and so you have to rewrite the program… and the world goes on spinning faster and faster and the stream beneath the bridge goes from a slow moving pool to a torrent while we are gone.

I look forward to our renewed friendship.

from your friend
Tim

“over the sea and far away, waiting like an iceberg, waiting to change.”

Hi, I’m following your posts since hmmm… about 3-4 hours ago, and I *must* congratulate you for the interesting articles and nice descriptions I have read so far.

I also have some negative feedback. The RSS feed shouldn’t send me to the website to read the full story. That’s what RSS readers are for, right? They let you browse your favorite sites from within a unified interface, thus enhancing one’s productivity. I hate to read the first N paragraphs, then spawn a web browser just to read the whole stuff. Maybe you’ll want to consider this ;-)

I discovered we share some habits, even the infamous Tinnitus (though mine is not that bad), so I’ll hang around and most probably offer some feedback further on to your stories. Hey, I’m subject to your last purpose listed for this website!

Victor, thank you for the feedback. I changed the RSS settings. This was a legacy from the old dial-up days, I always looked for ways to reduce the amount of info that had to be transferred - so I would only read an article if I was sure I wanted that.

But that is is not relevant anymore, and you’re the first person to point it out (-:

I am sorry to hear about your Tinnitus, take it easy with the headphones and always wear ear-plugs if you go to concerts.

Thank you for taking your time to leave a comment, I will try to produce more interesting stories for you in the future (-: